Morning, brothers and sisters. It’s a wonderful cloudy day. You know, the sun is shining through the clouds, and that’s wonderful to think about.
Let’s open the Word for a few verses. In 1 Peter, chapter 2, starting with verse 4, Peter writes:
Coming to Him as to a living stone, rejected indeed by men, but chosen by God and precious,
you also, as living stones, are being built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.
And on down to verse 9:
But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him Who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light;
who once were not a people but are now the people of God, who had not obtained mercy but now have obtained mercy.
Beloved, I beg you, as sojourners and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the soul,
having your conduct honorable among the Gentiles, that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may, by your good works which they observe, glorify God in the day of visitation.
Then I want to go back a couple of pages to Hebrews, chapter 11, verse 13. It reads—these are all the people they talked about before:
These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, were assured of them, embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth.
And then one last verse, in 1 Peter, chapter 5, verse 12:
By Silvanus, our faithful brother, as I consider him, I have written to you briefly, exhorting and testifying that this is the true grace of God in which you stand.
Let’s pray.
Our Father, we want to thank You that we’ve been restored to You by the blood of Christ, and that this was Your plan from before the foundation of the earth: that we would not be lost to You, and You would not be lost to us. We bless You, and we worship You, because this is Who You are.
Father, we want to please You, and we want to walk with You, and we want to do the right things—the things that please You. We ask, Lord, that You give us light. Just give us light, so that we can walk with You in our remaining days.
Lord, we only have so many days. But in the days we have left, we want to walk with You. We do not want the rest of our lives to be dissipation, but to be full of fruit and substance. Only You can make them that way.
Lord, we need Your help. We need Your help to see Your Word, to hear You speaking to us, and to respond. We need all of this. These are the graces that we are asking for today.
Our brother said that we come to You to find grace in time of need. Lord, these are our last days of life; these are our times of need. We want and ask for these graces, so that we might, in the end, be those who glorify You and satisfy You in what You have done through Jesus Christ in us. We pray this in Jesus’ name.
I don’t remember the last time I spoke. I think it was last year. Pretty good, huh?
I’ve been speaking out of 1 Peter, and like I said, this is not an expository message, but things that the Lord has made me think about as I’ve read these things. I don’t know how many messages I’m going to do on 1 Peter after this, but there are just some things.
I was really struck by Max’s message on New Year’s weekend about numbering our days. I really think I want my days to count for eternity—not just to be lived, but to count. And I think that’s what the Lord wants for all of us.
We have been looking at all these things that we have in Christ: that we have been born again to this living hope; that God has redeemed us with a great price. That song we sang at the opening, “Arise, My Soul, Arise,” is one of my favorite hymns. It is one of the greatest hymns you could ever think about because it tells you how much Christ means to the Father—that He would not give up on us because of those five bleeding wounds, those powerful, effectual prayers.
If we only understood how much He loves us, and His heart toward us, what confidence we could live in this world.
A couple times ago, I spoke on—I think Jack titles my things. I don’t know where he gets these titles from—but he said we are supposed to “walk like we’re Christians.” That had to do with 1 Peter and, I think, verse 16, where it says, “Be holy, for I am holy.”
Most people I have read, when studying Peter, say that from 1 Peter 2:11 the book becomes less theoretical and more practical. I know my tendency is to love the theoretical. I really like it because it expands your mind and makes you think in higher ways.
But we can be so heavenly minded that we are of no earthly good, and that is not the Lord’s plan for us. The Lord’s plan is that we are of earthly good. In other words, not that we are living in the world in such a way that we have all the pleasures of the world, but that His mark is seen in us as we wander the earth.
This morning, I really want to dwell on 1 Peter 2:11-12. That is where the earthly good is. It is wonderful to have the Lord show us who we are in Christ—not who we are in ourselves. We have seen that, and that is why we fled to Christ in the first place, isn’t it?
In chapter 1, Peter speaks of our being born again through imperishable seed, of our living hope because of the resurrection, and of our redemption through the precious blood of a Lamb without blemish. In chapter 2, he speaks of living stones being built into a spiritual house and a holy priesthood.
It speaks of what we are—not what we will be. Right now, we are in the very presence of God. We are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, and a holy nation. All these things are true about us.
But I want to come back to 1 Peter 1:16: “Be holy, for I am holy,” because that all comes into being in 1 Peter 2:11-12: “Beloved, I beg you.”
When I looked at this before, I saw “be holy” not as, “We have to clean ourselves up,” but as God saying, “I want you to be Mine.” We are coming up on Valentine’s Day, right? “Be Mine.” I want you to be Mine, and I want it to show that you are Mine.
This right here shows me that I’m Barb’s. It shows me I’m hers. But I hope it is more than a symbol. I hope the way I act toward others, and toward my wife, shows her that I am hers. You know what I mean? That’s what I want.
I have a thinner wedding ring now. I lost my wedding ring. I had surgery on a finger, and they had to take it off. I forgot to pick it up, and then it was gone. So I had to get another one.
But when I took off my old wedding ring, there was an impression from wearing it. There is still a little impression right here. Have you guys noticed that? Have you ever taken off your wedding ring and seen that little impression there? You guys who haven’t been married very long, I’m sure it is not that deep. But those of us who have been married a long time know it is deeper.
My whole point is this: to embrace a vision means that it has made an impression on you. Some way, it has made an impression on you. Then you, in turn, leave an impression where you go.
It is not that you are heavenly minded and of no earthly good. A vision embraced leaves an impression in the world; it leaves footprints.
The Gnostics used to say about Jesus that He only came as a spirit, so when He walked the earth, He left no footprints. No, He left footprints. We are also to leave footprints where we go, where we are.
The whole thing is this: What is the impression on us? What gives that impression weight in our lives, so that we leave an impression where we go?
Peter says, “Beloved, I beg you, as sojourners and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the soul, having your conduct honorable among the Gentiles, that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may, by your good works which they observe, glorify God in the day of visitation.”
Now, as a younger man, the first thing I would look at is “abstain.” And it is a main point here. But something makes you abstain. Before he even says “abstain,” he says, “As sojourners, abstain.” That is a big difference.
It is not just telling you to abstain; it is saying, “As sojourners.” The Lord says, “Here are all these things that you are. This is what I have shown you that you are in Me. Be as a sojourner.” That is the first thing: consider yourself a sojourner.
A sojourner is not a wanderer. A wanderer has no direction. A wanderer is just wandering around. You can see people in the mall, and they are just wandering around. They have no idea. They may be going, “What am I doing here?”
Wanderers have no goal and no direction; they are just meandering. But Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph had a purpose. They had a purpose for their sojourn.
I looked up “sojourn,” and it gave me Leviticus 25:23. This is about the land in the time of Jubilee. People would get into debt and sell parts of their possession, but every fiftieth year the Lord would restore it to the original family that owned it.
In describing all of this, the Lord said in Leviticus 25:23:
The land shall not be sold permanently, for the land is Mine; for you are strangers and sojourners with Me.
He did not just say, “You are strangers and sojourners.” He said, “You are strangers and sojourners with Me.” You are sojourning with Me. I have you here.
Another word is “pilgrims,” or some say “aliens.” Aliens are strangers. In other words, they are not accepted as natives of the land, or perhaps they do not see themselves as natives of the land.
My grandmother on my mother’s side—her maiden name was Kadal, I think Helena Kadal—was sent to the United States by her family, and she never accepted this as her homeland. In her mind, she was a sojourner; she was an alien, and she would not accept otherwise.
The only time she would speak English was at work. Even when we visited—we only visited once because they lived in Massachusetts and we lived in California—she never spoke English to us as kids, except for one phrase.
We were eating, and some of us did not like the food because it was Polish and we were not used to it. She said, “Eat, you’re going to be die.” In other words, if you do not eat, you are going to die. That is the only English I remember her speaking.
She would not do otherwise because, in her heart, this was not her home. It is the same thing for us. A sojourner says in the deepest part of our being, “This is not our final destination. This is not our final place of residence.”
Our final place of residence is a new heavens and a new earth, a New Jerusalem. That is our final place of residence. But this is not it. This is going to pass away.
The early patriarchs dwelt in a land that was theirs. The Lord said, “The land is Mine,” and He gave it to them. He said to Abraham, “Go out to a land that I will give you.” They lived in a place that was to be theirs; they were to be rulers of that land. Yet they lived in it as though they did not have a deed to it.
Our heart is not here. This is not where our heart is. Our heart should not be attached to this. Sometimes we find attachments and set up tent pegs, but the life in us is not attached to this earth.
Probably the best complete picture of a sojourner is Jesus Christ, Who lived on this earth as a sojourner. This was not His home, but He made the place where He dwelt a place lived toward God.
Abraham was the beginning of all sojourners that we can think of here. He left. He came out of Ur. He left the place from which he came.
It is not just that we leave the place; we leave the affection. God said not only to leave Ur, but also to leave his family. The very place where the heart was attached, God said, “Your heart has been attached here, but I am calling you out to something different.”
“I am calling you to a different vocation, and you have to come out.” Abraham did, because he saw something. He saw something that captured his heart, and when God spoke to him and said, “Come out,” he came out.
He went to a land he did not know—an unknown place—to know the Unknown. When we first became Christians, we had no idea Who God was. But when we repented and gave our lives to God, we began to know Him Who was unknown.
Abraham learned different names of God because God revealed Himself in different ways. We spoke this morning about the Most High God. You do not see that name until Genesis 14, though Abraham was called out in Genesis 12.
Later, God revealed Himself as God Almighty, El Shaddai. Then, when Abraham offered up Isaac, He became his Provider. As Abraham went along, God became more to him.
The calling out into the unknown brought Abraham into the knowing of the Unknown. As we go out, we find out Who He is—not merely because we study, but because He reveals Himself to us as we walk through life.
He becomes to us what we need. As our brother was sharing last week, “I am.” What do you need? “I am.” “I am your help. I am the bread of life.” What are you lacking? “I am the making up of that lack.”
Then there is Isaac. We do not give Isaac credit because we often think of him as a weak man because he loved Esau’s stew. But Isaac had this going for him: he did not go down to Egypt.
The Lord said, “Don’t.” In other words, do not think that by going to Egypt you will find everything you need. Stay here, and you will find all that you need—all that will fulfill your life and keep you alive.
So Isaac did not go down to Egypt as his father Abraham did. The other thing about Isaac was that he contended for life.
Much of Israel and Canaan is desert. If you are a Bedouin out there, what do you need? You need water. In Genesis 26, Isaac is contending for wells; he is contending for life.
He had the riches of Abraham given to him, but he did not merely say, “Okay, these riches are mine.” He went out and sought life. Even though the riches were his, he sought life. He contended for it.
When people said, “You can’t have it,” he moved on, dug his own wells, and found living water. Isaac says, “I am not going into this world to find fulfillment. This world is not going to be the thing that fulfills me.”
The world may give physical sustenance, but life is not about physical sustenance. Remember the poem “Richard Cory”? He was rich, handsome, well thought of—he had everything he needed. Yet he went home one night and took his own life. What does that tell you?
The things of earth, even though he had them all, were not the things that fulfilled him. He was empty. Isaac was told, “Do not look there for the fulfillment of your life. I will fulfill your life. Stay here.”
The Lord’s promise was, “I will fulfill you.” Things did not just come to Isaac. He was not somebody who sat on his laurels and let everything come to him. He came to the table, so to speak, and partook of it.
He was a digger of wells; he did not have water fetched for him.
Jacob wrestled with God. He did not wrestle with the world; he wrestled with God. I think that is very interesting.
If you look at Jacob, most people say it is about the self-life. That is what we wrestle with all the time: God’s way or our way; what we want to do or what God wants to do.
Jacob wrestled with God, and it affected him in such a way that he did not walk right. God touched him. In his wrestling, it says he contended with God. He held out to the very end until God touched him. The mercy of God was that God touched him.
His walk was not like the walk of people in the world. He had a different gait because God had touched him. After his wrestling in Genesis 32, Jacob is still much like us—struggling all the time.
God changed his name to Israel, but the rest of Genesis keeps going from Jacob to Israel, from Jacob to Israel. Isn’t that just like us? Yet it is wonderful that God calls Himself, more than anything else, the God of Jacob, because He deals with us.
In Genesis 35, God told Jacob to go back to Bethel. He had settled down in Shechem and even bought land there. But God said, “No, I want you to go here.” God moved him through circumstances because if God cannot get us through His speaking and His Word, He will do other things to get us to pay attention to Him.
Jacob’s idols were gone. He buried all the idols, left Shechem, and came to the place where self was no longer so confident.
In the end, it says Jacob leaned on his staff, even to worship. To me, that is a great picture. He could not even worship self-confidently; he had to lean on a staff. I think the staff is the Lord. He had to lean on the Lord to worship.
God does not mind our wrestling with Him. You need to understand this, because God is out to win with us. God is out to win in our lives, and He is going to wrestle with us.
When we do not wrestle, we are ignoring Him. We are saying, “I don’t want to listen to what You have to say. I’m going my way.” But when we wrestle, we come to places where we say, “Lord, I really want to do this,” until God says, “You need to see it this way. I know better than you.”
Then He touches our thigh, our hip socket. It may not always be pleasant, but it is a wonderful thing.
Then Joseph. The thing about Joseph is that he came to the realization that his life was not bound to Egypt.
That is what we read in Hebrews 11. He said, “Take my bones back to Israel.” In other words, he knew his life was not bound to Egypt.
Our lives are not bound to our jobs, our schooling, or things like that. Those things are not supposed to bind our lives or keep us in this place. Israel became slaves in Egypt, and to stay in Egypt is to become slaves.
Those of you who are growing up, getting out of college, and wanting to get ahead—if you want to get ahead in this life, you can become a slave. You can become bound to Egypt. Pharaoh says, “I do not know this God you are talking about. You are lazy. No more straw for you. Get your own straw.”
But Joseph knew that his life was not bound to Egypt. Even when he was in Potiphar’s house, in jail, and later became ruler in Egypt, he knew he was not there merely to be ruler.
God had a purpose for him: to save that whole Mediterranean area through the famine. He knew it was bigger than his being in Egypt. Canaan was the promised land, and he had been raised up for a purpose.
Joseph was in Egypt for a purpose, but the purpose was not to be successful in Egypt. Makes sense?
This is what we mean by being a sojourner. We have been called out into the unknown to know the Unknown. We have been called out and told, “Do not think you will find your satisfaction or your life in Egypt.”
We are called to contend for what is ours, to wrestle with God so that we find out His will for us, and to realize that our life is not bound to this earth or to this world system.
A wonderful brother, when I was on tour and was upset because I was out of fellowship, said to me, “Why don’t you just quit?” I had not signed a contract; I just got paid. He said, “You’re not bound.” That was very liberating for me, because I quit. It was the first thing I had ever quit, but it was the right thing to do. It is liberating to know you are not bound.
Now, as sojourners—as those who have been called out, who are wrestling with God, and who know they are not bound—it says, “Abstain,” and “Have your conduct honorable.”
We may look at abstaining as legalistic. But when the Lord shows us life, it is not legalism. If it is simply a list of things you are not going to do, that is legalism. But if the Lord is moving on you and showing you, “I do not want you to touch this,” or, “I do not want you to go this way,” that is life.
Abstain means to exercise restraint, to hold yourself back from, to refrain. It says to abstain from fleshly lusts.
Fleshly lusts are not only sexual lusts. We often see the word “lust” and put something sexual with it, and it can be that. But lust is something you want, and what makes it lust is that it is put in the wrong place.
Some things are good; they are good for us. But it is the place we put them that makes them a lust. “I have to have this, or else.” That is what makes it lust and takes it out of whack.
In Campus Crusade, they used to have that little illustration of Christ on the throne, with everything in its right place. But when self was on the throne, some little things became bigger than others. Some things mean more to us than they should.
Lust can be anything like this: “I want time for me. Where is the time for me?” As students, we may say, “Why am I always studying? I want time for me.” Then the time for you increases, and the time for studying decreases.
Or when we become parents—especially mothers—“I want time for me.” Then the children may not do as well because they are left with Dad. You know how that goes. Mothers are nurturing. Guys are more like, “Here, eat cake. I’m watching TV.”
Or how about this: “I just want to live in comfort. I just want a comfortable life.” I am not saying you should not have luxuries, but is the purpose of my life to have a comfortable life?
“I want three cars. I want a five-bedroom house. I want a swimming pool.” If that is where I put my aim, that is a fleshly lust.
Fleshly lusts wage war against the soul. Your soul is the center of your being. The spirit is supposed to control the soul, but the soul concerns your intellect, your will, and your emotions.
The phrase “wage war” is like a siege. Think of The Lord of the Rings: when the orcs come against a city, they lay siege to it. They bring siege machines, towers, fire, battering rams, and they come against the walls.
A siege is not a short war. Some sieges lasted two years. Read Lamentations, and you see the effect of a siege. It is gruesome. The whole purpose is to weaken the will to fight.
Fleshly lusts wage war against your soul. They are going after the strategic points in your life—your conscience, your mind, your will, and your emotions.
They want you to let down your guard on your conscience. They want to sear your conscience, so your conscience says, “Oh yeah, we’ll just let it go. We can let that slide.”
They want to occupy your mind. These things here—our phones—are killers. I do not know what you guys have on yours. Some of you have games. Some have news. Some have sports. You have all sorts of stuff on them.
A lot of times we say, “We’re just doing mindless things.” No, your mind is totally engaged with your phone. The occupation of your mind keeps your mind from being renewed.
You say, “Lord, just one more game, and then I’ll read. Just one more article.” Then all of a sudden, our time is gone. What it is doing is separating the soul from God.
That is what fleshly lusts do. They separate the soul from God. Christ came to save souls—to bring souls back to God and back to the place where the spirit rules over them. The enemy wages war so that he can keep the soul away from God.
The will is meant to do the will of God. The emotions are meant to know the heart of God and display the heart of God in life. The intellect is meant to have a renewed mind. This is the war being waged.
I read F. B. Meyer on this, and it was a killer. It just killed me. I will not say some of the things because I do not want to bring you down, but some things struck me like daggers in the heart.
I will summarize what I read. Attacks on the soul steal and dull your consecration. They steal your consecration—your separateness, your setting apart to God.
One man said it is like Samson laying his head in the lap of Delilah, where she took his consecration—his hair—and cut it off.
Fleshly lusts consume our strength. We do not then have the strength to do the things our spirit is willing to do. Galatians says that the flesh wars against the spirit.
They injure us in our interests for God and His kingdom. How do you fight when you are injured? Not very well. It is like fighting with one arm behind your back. They injure us in our desire to do the will of God.
But we are to abstain. By the Spirit of God, we can exercise restraint. It is possible because God says there is no temptation common to man for which He does not provide a way out.
Do you really want a way out? The Lord will show you. A lot of times, the Lord is moving on us and speaking, but we are ignoring Him.
We want to abstain from these things. This is practical, isn’t it? We have to abstain. Who is master? That is the question of our lives as Christians: Who is master?
Then Peter speaks of honorable conduct. The King James Version says “seemly behavior,” but my version says “honorable conduct.” I think this is summed up in Micah 6:8:
He hath showed thee, O man, what is good;
and what doth the Lord require of thee,
but to do justly, and to love mercy,
and to walk humbly with thy God?
That is seemly conduct. To do justly simply means to do what is right—to do what is right in the sight of God and in the sight of men.
It is not just to know what is right. It is to know what is right and, by the grace of God, to do it. That is doing justly.
People notice when you do the right thing. The world notices, whether they agree with you or not. They know it is the right thing.
Then it says to love mercy. Another version says to love kindness. Mercy and kindness are attributes of God, aren’t they? God is merciful. God is kind.
Did you not see the mercy of God and the kindness of God in the Lord Jesus? Even when people became legalistic, He said to them, “Go and find out what this means: ‘I desire mercy and not sacrifice.’”
He is saying, “Be like your heavenly Father.” Love mercy. Love to show mercy. Love to be kind. Do deeds of mercy and kindness.
Practically, we should go to the Lord and say, “Lord, as I read Your Word, as I go through these things, as I fellowship with other saints, teach me what is right. Teach me what is right, and give me the grace to do it as You show me the opportunity.”
We have been talking in prayer meetings about evangelizing. How much of this leads to sharing the gospel simply by doing what is right? You do what is right, and somebody asks, “Why are you doing that?” Well, let me tell you.
Sometimes prayer is seeking God and saying, “Show me what I should be. Show me how to be what I should be. Show me the right things.” Then, as we look in the Word, He says, “That is what I am talking about.” Encourage me to do it.
As far as loving mercy and kindness, we can pray, “Lord, show Your love through me today.” That is a great prayer. We are not trying to define love. Lord, You love the world. Show Your love through me today in the things that I do and the things that I say.
Show people the love of God that You have for them through my life today. Give me the grace to express it.
Love is not always just saying a good word. Sometimes love is telling a brother, “You’re stepping out of balance, man. You need to get back on the schneid.” Sometimes that is love.
Sometimes love is going to a brother and saying, “I see you’re sitting here, and you have nothing. You need something to eat. Let me get you something to eat.” That is showing the love and kindness of God.
God is kind even to sinners. He causes the rain to fall on the just and the unjust. God so loved the world. When people asked Jesus why He was among sinners, He said, “I came to save the lost. They need a doctor.”
To walk humbly with God means to give Him His place. In giving Him His place, come into agreement with Him—in what He is doing, what He is showing you, and what He is telling you.
Walk humbly with Him. Give Him His place. Peter says in 1 Peter 5, “Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord.”
Doing justly, loving mercy and kindness—these are the fruit of walking humbly with God. That is what comes out of walking with God.
Then Peter speaks of the day of visitation. I do not believe this is merely the day when Christ returns. I think it is more like Luke 19, where Jesus wept over Jerusalem and said that there would not be one stone left upon another because they did not recognize the day of their visitation.
Brothers and sisters, all throughout this city and all throughout this world, it is the day of visitation for some people. Why? Because Christ is in you.
Christ is in you, loving and doing right. It is the day of their visitation. Let’s not hold that back from them. In the day of their visitation, what does Peter say? They will glorify God.
I do not think people who hate God are going to glorify Him. But I do think that those who respond to Him will respond to His mercy, His love, and the gospel as presented by us, because they see the Lord reaching out to them.
It is the day of their visitation. We need to understand that it is not all about us. The Lord is doing things, and there is a day of visitation for millions whom the Lord is trying to reach and visit.
Hebrews 11 speaks of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob together. We sojourn as a company. We sojourn as a band.
How can I sum this up? I started by saying that the Lord is saying, “I want you to be Mine.” Having known all these things, now I want you to be Mine.
I want to put this in a way that is not religious, but that might put the point across. When I was in high school, I was a sophomore, and I got pulled up to the varsity basketball team.
I did not like it because all my friends were on junior varsity, and I was out of my element. The guys were just better than me. But on game days, all of us had to wear a blue blazer and a tie.
A blue blazer and a tie. Now, wearing a tie is not really who I am. Even this is cleaned up. You can ask my wife. She hides things so I will not wear them. My blue Columbia shirt disappeared; it is gone.
But the blue blazer meant something to me. It meant that I was part of this team, and because I was part of this team, I had to act like I was part of the team.
Once you put that blue blazer on, people knew who you were. You were on the team. It made you play that part. Your teachers knew, “He is in the blue blazer. He is going to be an upstanding person”—at least for that day.
It affected my behavior. It even affected the way I thought. I was on the team. I had this destiny to be there, to be on this team, and that was a wonderful thing.
Putting on that blue blazer was the beginning of consecration for me. It became my consecration.
What about us? What starts our consecration? Every morning, we have a chance to renew consecration. Every morning, we have a chance to put on the blue blazer.
In our quiet times, we get before the Lord. Our blue blazer is really Christ. He gives us Christ to wear. He gives us that coat of many colors so that we stand out, because He wants us to stand out.
Why would He put a light under a bushel? You put it on a lampstand so that the whole house can be lit by the light.
Every morning we have that time to come to the Lord and say, “Lord, I’m Yours. I am Yours. I want to live for You today.”
We can say, “Lord, I take up that mantle. I take up that coat that You have given me, and I put it on this morning with thanksgiving and praise that You let me do this. I want to honor You in wearing this coat today.”
At the end of the day, we come back. There is supposed to be a morning offering and an evening offering.
In the evening, it is not that we take the coat off. But we wash our feet from the places where we have not done well, the places where we have gone astray, and we find cleansing so that we can be renewed.
Then, when we wake up the next day, we are ready to put the coat on again because we were renewed at night.
A lot of us miss the night offering. We are too busy with other things, we get too tired, and all of a sudden we miss it. The night offering should be a real saying, “Lord, here I am again. Here I am at the end of my night. Watch me through the night. Cleanse me from the things I picked up.”
Otherwise, the morning offering becomes, “I’m not worthy.” We want our accounts closed by the blood of Jesus so that we can rest at night and know the peace of God, Who sees us through the night and gives our eyes sleep.
Confess our sins. Confess our shortcomings. Make those things right. Praise Him. Thank Him for His love. Then, when you start the next morning, you are starting well.
Even as you open your eyes, you can say, “Lord, here I am. Here I am. Send me.”
Let’s pray.
Heavenly Father, we want to thank You that You have given all these things to us in Christ. We look at ourselves and do not see them in ourselves, but we see that this is who You say we are because we are in Christ.
We want to thank You and praise You that these things are true, that they are not pipe dreams; they are reality. Now, Lord, we want to respond to You.
We want to be the sojourners that Peter talks about. We want to be those who have in our hearts the highways to Zion, Lord, and are walking those ways. We want to be those who stand for You.
Lord, give us grace to abstain from fleshly lusts. Help us; point them out to us. When You do, help us to exercise restraint and find that Your power is behind us.
Lord, help us also to have those works that show forth Who You are, those works that are needed for those days of visitation—for many who are looking for an answer and looking for light.
Lord, help us to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with You. Then, Lord, help us to put on that garment—our garment that You made especially for us because You love us.
Lord, we want to wear that garment daily. Help us not to shorten our evening offering. Help us leave time for it, so that we can even smell the aroma of it.
Lord, You are so good to us. We want to do good back to You because You are worthy of it, and because we love You. We pray in Jesus’ name.